HOLOCAUST
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
FIERY JEWEL
June 10, 2186
1619 hours.
Eternity Bar, Business District, Nos Astra, Illium.
The Reaper War, Unprecedented Reaper Strike: Fall of Illium.
Matriarch Aethyta.
Heat danced over her skin as the explosion shook the bar apart, the destroyed tables sent flying in multiple directions and shattering upon impact with the walls. She listened as people screamed, either engulfed and torn apart by the blast, or thrown away like a doll to slam into a wall, breaking numerous bones or simply dying from the hit. The Eternity Bar was a mess of gunfire, explosions and gore as the place was torn asunder, the Reaper assault utterly methodical, ruthless and relentless.
From her crouched position behind the bar, she could hear moans and groans, but she didn't recognize them; they sounded unnatural, the sound hanging in her ears eerily. She heard the padding of feet as the assailants rushed by, followed by screams she recognized as noise coupled them, the sound of flesh being torn apart and claws raking against steel easily heard; creatures. The Reapers had deployed their ground troops. Fuck, now it's going to be even harder to get out of here.
She coughed from the smoke that she inhaled, covering her mouth and nose to keep it out, but not daring to bring up her biotics in case it drew too much attention. The sound of a Reaper's airhorn echoed throughout the bar, drilling into her eardrums as she gritted her teeth. The sound would make the most hardened shudder, and she felt a chill shoot up her spine from it, sending goosebumps up her skin. Goddess, never did I think a sound like that could be so...terrifying. Fuck this shit, I need to get out of here. These assholes are pretty methodical, and they'll find me before long.
She grunted as she extended her crouch slightly upwards, grunting as she looked up and peeked over the bar. It was covered in the glass of multiple shattered glasses, and even some liquid dripped over it from unfinished drinks now spilt. But she didn't take notice of that; she only had eyes for what lay ahead of her. Directly ahead lay the remainder of the ruined structure, and it was a very desolate place. The back room was now completely gone, only a large gaping hole that gave a clear view of the city outside, wind whipping past the large, gigantic lumbering form of a Reaper capital ship lumbering by, beams of red hot death spewing from its under carriage as it traversed Nos Astra, annihilating everything in its path. The building shuddered with everyone of the Reaper's leg falls, and she watched as a building in the distance was shoved out of the way by another capital ship, moving through it as debris rained down upon its hull, completely unfazed by the object. Fires raged in the background, smoke rising up into Illium's atmosphere; what had been a shining jewel of asari grace and power was now nothing but a destroyed ruin; a fiery jewel.
She turned away from the hole, watching as husks seemed to almost endlessly pour out of it. She had heard the Reapers had converted batarians, turians and krogan, but all she saw was the human husks; wondering around as they seemed to search the place, and she looked around in horror, taking note of the bloodied floor and the torn and shredded remnants of what had been people; ripped apart by the mindless Reaper horde. She swore one was turning to face her direction, so she fell back behind the bar, drawing in her breath. She had noticed the bar's entrance; it was unlocked, and she could make a run for it, but where would she go? No doubt Reaper forces were all over the city. She would find no asylum anywhere in Nos Astra, not so long as the Reapers lay siege to it. And if they are here in full force, then they aren't leaving any time soon. But anywhere was better than here at present.
She took another peek, and this time she saw a dew dozen of the husks were glowing. Bright orange in fact, and it looked like they were on fire. Abominations. Those ones are explosive. Suddenly, she had a plan of attack, and prepared a biotic fist under the bar, her other hand staying put as she continued to study her bar's invaders. Well, she couldn't stay here, as the place was going to be vaporized at one point or another, or she would be found by husks. Neither option particularly appealed to her.
Reaching back under her bar, she tore open one of the drawers, reaching in and bringing out her Tempest SMG, quickly making sure it was loaded before reaching further in and gathering all her thermal clips; fifteen in total. With a sigh, she placed all fifteen in the many pockets of her shirt, bracing the SMG with one hand as she reared her other hand, glowing with ethereal energy. She took slow, deep breaths, steadying herself for the coming battle. She closed her eyes, smiling, bringing up an image of Liara. I'm coming...little wing. Waiting no longer, she steeled herself and vaulted over the bar, sending her biotics forth.
Like a tornado they tore through the space, sending debris and rotting flesh in many directions before barrelling into the horde of husks coming through the breach. They didn't get time to register the attack as a dozen were sent flying back through and plummeted towards the ground far below, one of them being an abomination that exploded as it grazed against a wall, fiery body exploding and obliterating the husks around it. But despite her assault, the husks were now prepared and moving towards her, and more were beginning to come through the hole. With haste, she moved off to the left, her goal the door as she brought her SMG to bear and let loose a burst of fire, holding down the trigger until it screamed at her for a reload. Complying, she reached inside, pulled out a clip, popped her current one and then slid the new one in, bringing the weapon back for a second volley. By that point, numerous husks had fallen to her gunfire, as well as having detonated many abominations, but she didn't care as she opened fire again, her back hitting the door, tapping the interface. She fell onto her back as the door slid open, and she quickly kicked herself behind it, desperately trying to escape while still spraying her weapon. In that instant, it clicked empty once more, and she scrambled to reload.
Her eyes widened as she was midway through reloading as a husk leapt at her, rotted teeth barred as it prepared to tear into her throat. She needn't have worried as the door closed a microsecond later, chopping the creature clean in half, sending its torso flailing onto her and leaving its legs behind. It screeched, trying to claw at her, but she simply raised her weapon, pinned it to its forehead, and pulled the trigger, spraying black ichor along the ground and into her face.
She wiped it away to the best of her ability before rushing to her feet, hearing banging on the door. She sighed, knowing the door was far too strong and heavily reinforced to be beaten down by a horde of husks. She turned to move down the stairs, but stopped when she heard a loud bang, turning back to see a massive dent in the door. Her eyes went wide again in shock just before another bang, a loud, raspy growling sound tearing through the door. She had heard it before. A brute. No doubt there would be more of the large monstrosities, and she elected to make no further comments on Reaper ability as she rushed down the steps and made best speed for the main business area below. Maybe she would find more survivors.
She rounded the stairs, moving down them as she moved through a jammed door, through anothe stairway, and then rounded the corner once more.
She growled in irritation as she saw the glass observation window on the right side had shattered inwards, glass all over the stairs, but the stairs themselves were blackened, with one side reduced to debris. She stepped delicately over it, making sure she didn't impale her foot on the jagged piece of metal, before moving over it, moving towards the closed door at the bottom, luckily unlocked; she thanked the goddess for Illium security procedure regarding a siege; make all evacuation routes unlocked so as to not stem the flow of civilian evacuation.
She hit the door interface, raising her weapon, as she could not know what to expect behind it. It slid apart seemlessly, but she found herself greeted by nothing, only the corpse of three dead asari, along with a dead turian. She almost gasped at the smell, and she quickly took notice of the scratch marks along their faces and backs, purple to blue blood leaking from the wounds, but most of it having dried on their stained clothes. She moved past their bodies, turning right as she surveyed the damage done to the area.
Apart from the sounds of a Reaper walking away, Reapers moving in the background, and Reapers blowing apart every square foot of structure they came across, the business district was dead silent, literally. Some of the balcony had been caved in from the impact of a falling crane, which was now looming over the area; its upper half lodged into a wall above her and the other wedged inbetween the crack of the balcony, sparks flying from numerous destroyed consoles and fires raging throughout the decking. She wheezed when her eyes came across the dead of a volus, his suit ruptured meaning that there was now white blood all over the place, done from the skin splitting like a hot air balloon. His corpse wasn't the only one; numerous ones lay all over the place, ranging from casual civilians to security. The place was a graveyard.
She moved across the uneven ground, looking up at what used to be her daughter's office before she moved out, now just a battered husk; the windows were cracked heavily, but it looked largely untouched. She made quiet, quick steps, careful to not make too much noise. She found a husk nearby, crushed by a piece of steel pipe. She cringed, mouth creasing in distaste as she moved over to the helpless creature. It noticed her and began to snarl at her, flailing its arms about in a desperate attempt to reach her. Aethyta merely spat at it before bringing up her foot and stamping down on its neck, crushing it in an instant, causing it to cease all movement. With a sigh, she moved towards the stairway leading to Liara's old office, only to stop when she heard quiet sobbing. At first, she thought she was hearing things, but when she turned left, the sound intensified.
It was coming from an overturned table lying on the ground. Cautious, she bore her SMG and moved towards it, each one of her steps careful and measured. Finally reaching it, she wrapped a blue hand around it, overturning it before immediately bringing back her weapon to aim again. Her eyes lowered, but quickly widened as she felt herself lowering her weapon, surprised by the change of events.
Sitting in a fetal position up against the wall, her arms wrapped around her legs and sobbing into her mask, was a female quarian. Her suit was a deep black in color, with her veil being an enriched brown color. She ceased her weeping, head shooting up to look at her, silver eyes behind her mask widening before lowering again, seeing it was not a husk that loomed over her, but an asari matriarch. She turned back to her legs, sniffing, "Leave me alone," was all she said.
"What are you doing here?" Aethyta snarled, "Do you want to get fucking killed?"
She violently nodded, "It's better then what I've been getting. Besides, what's the point?" She choked back another sob, "The galaxy's coming to an end, why survive to see it?"
She crouched down next to the quarian, laying her SMG on the ground as she lay a hand on the quarian, "You're the only survivor I've found so far, you know. Besides, it could be worse. You could be dead right now."
"I want to be dead right now," she grumbled.
"Why?" she growled, "Why do you want to be dead?"
She snapped to look at her, eyes dark, "Oh, so you want a lesson on my life? Fine, you bosh'tet. My life has been total heresh'ka since the beginning! My mother died giving birth to me, and my father recently died onboard a ship called the Alarei when a geth experiment went wrong. Before that, I was already on my pilgrimage, and I made the almighty decision to go to Illium. And coupled with everyone treating me like garbage and dirty excrement, I run out of food and begin to starve. So I thought...why not become a worker? So I go up to Synthetic Insights, and ask for a job. And what happens?" she sobbed once more, her body shaking with sorrow, muttering something.
"What did you say?" Aethyta asked, grabbing the bottom of the quarian's mask and thrusting it upwards, "Speak up, kid."
"Indentured servitude, you Illium people call it," she spat, "Humans call it slavery, and for good reason. I didn't realize what was happening until I was already under contract; now I'm just a slave for some corporate hagrr'hiz to lead around by a chain. I'm their pet, their little worker who cannot get away. And I thought it would be just for my pilgrimage. Turns out I'm just an ignorant child. They signed me on for life. From that day, I knew I'd never see my own people, or the Migrant Fleet, ever again," she drew in breath, shaking her head, "So why live? The Reapers are here and want to take my life? So be it. Let them take it. I want nothing more. If only for this nightmare to end."
She sighed, shaking the quarian's shoulder, "Look kid, I'm not going to pretend to know how you feel, but I know this: I didn't come all this way just to let the first survivor I see die. You're a quarian, so that's even more of a rarity. I know your life's been pretty shitty, from what I've heard it sounds goddamn depressing, but moping here won't solve anything. You want to see the Migrant Fleet again? Come with me." She moved to pull her up, but she didn't budge, refusing to move. She growled, trying to lift her, "Will you get up!"
"No!" she screamed, wrenching her arm free, "I don't want to go! Just let me be!"
"You're coming with me! You're not going to die!" Aethyta yelled back.
"That's not your choice to make!" she growled back, "Who the hell are you to play God? Ancestors forbid I want to choose how I die! I've got nothing left for me back on the Fleet but my people! We don't get to have brothers and sisters like you do, so I have nothing on that side! I have no mother or father! And I don't have any aunties or uncles! I'm not like you! I don't get to live in a life of luxury! My life is hell! So why not just end it, here and now? I'm not going to live with the legacy of slavery and dead parents in my wake. Its not happening!"
"And what about marriage? And a kid?" she snapped at the pilgrim, "Did you think of that? One day, you would have found a nice young man to marry and you'd have your own child!"
"What?" she asked, flabbergasted by her audacity, "That...that's stupid! The thought never even crossed my mind! NO! I'm going to die here, and that's that! You cannot stop me!" Upon her words, the asari heard the familiar sounds of the moaning of husks, followed by the snarling of a brute as they descended the stairs. They've gotten through. But to her horror, the quarian turned to look at the sound, eyes not leaving the source as her position relaxed, something almost...content, in her tone, "Yes...here they come...it'll all be over soon..." she gulped, turning towards the matriarch, who still crouched over her, unrelenting in her stance. She sighed, taking on a gentler tone, "Just...go. You should go. You clearly don't want to die, and I understand, but could you please understand that I have nothing to live for? I have no reason to live. You do. So please, just save yourself, and leave me."
Aethyta growled as she held her hands in the air, wondering if she should kill her or leave her. Her eyes welled, wondering if it was the right thing to do; to leave this quarian to die. She shook her head, "I can't. I can't just leave knowing I left you to die. Do you know what those things will do to you? They'll kill you in the most painful ways possible. They don't shoot you, they'll tear you apart."
She heard a hiss, and she widened her eyes as she watched the quarian remove her mask, taking it away. Before the matriarch could do anything, she slammed it against a wall, shattering the visor and splaying bits of glass over the floor as the quarian smiled grimly, black hair spilling from under her veil, "I've suffered alot of pain in my life. I can suffer alittle more on the way to the afterlife. Please, my parents are waiting for me," she sighed, leaning back as she heard the sounds getting closer, "Go. Please. Don't sacrifice your life for me, especially when I want this. Let me have this, please."
The asari finally slumped, looking utterly helpless. She knew she should find it an honor to see a quarian's face, and should be amazed at her beauty, if it weren't for her tear-soaked cheeks and eyes, but she could only looked at the quarian sorrowfully, both angry that she had shattered her mask and therefore making it impossible to save her life, but also sad that she had to leave this poor girl to die and she wasn't even an adult yet. She hadn't experienced life. It was a sad waste of life. Sighing, she asked only one thing of her, "What's your name?"
The girl looked shocked, "What? What kind of a question is that?"
"What's your name, kid?"
She sighed, rubbing her temples, "Dalra'Otto nar Hjasp."
The asari smiled, nodding melancholy, "May you find peace in the embrace of the goddess, Dalra'Otto nar Hjasp," she held back tears at the quarian stranger's passing, "Keelah Se'lai."
The quarian nodded just as sadly, "Thank you. Keelah Se'lai..."
"Aethyta."
"...Aethyta," she replied, "Go in peace, and ancestors be with you."
Aethyta could not stand to watch any longer as she kissed the top of the quarian's head before picking up her weapon and spinning around the corner, narrowly avoiding the sights of the appearing huskified forces. She heaved as she reached the door under the old office, but stopped her hand when she saw when one of the doors was blown off. Shrugging, she moved through the doorway and found the corridor ahead to be completely empty, so she pushed on ahead, keeping her SMG brandished at all times. She moved forward until she reached the door at the end, this time both doors having been completely blown apart. She did a sweep of both sides, before taking her first step.
She cringed as she heard a female scream, and she felt a tear leave her eye before wiping it away; she recognized the voice it belonged to. But if the husks had reached her, they wouldn't be far behind; she had to keep moving. Another scream, and soon the corridor echoed with them, and Aethyta just wanted to get as far away as she could to escape them. She thought she heard Dalra scream 'No!', but she quickly threw those thoughts to the wind, merely continuing through the empty lobby and up to the door on the other side, watching it slide apart before her...
...only to reveal the back of a cannibal, who was now turning to the source of the noise. It screeched as it locked eyes with her, bringing its gun arm to aim at her, but she knocked it aside with one biotic arm, using the other hand to raise her SMG and empty a burst, point-blank, into the hideous husk's face. It flew apart as the bullets chewed through its head, blowing apart chunks of flesh and meat as it fell limply to the floor, the Reaper connection to its body cut due to the lack of an operable brain. She raised a biotic barrier as she felt numerous bullets impact against it, a swarm of cannibals appearing as they opened fire on her, a marauder leading them as it also fired bursts from its procured phaeston, letting out harsh, mechanical screeches as it lead its squad of demonic minions to their next victim. But Aethyta was no victim; she would not end up like Dalra. She would not.
But she could not hope to take on an entire squad of the creatures, let alone a fully-shielded leader unit like the marauder; by the time she finished its shields, she would have dropped her barrier, and the turian phaeston was known for making short work of unarmoured units; she would be chewed like gum if she let even one bullet touch her.
So with renewed purpose, and a bit of sheer stupidity, she rolled to the left, bursting through the glass railing, keeping her barriers up as she did. It rained around her as she fell through cleanly, coming to a thud on the ground below as she growled. Pain stabbed her body, and she felt bits of sharp glass jabbing into her skin. She covered herself to get rid of any unwanted debris and quickly started moving, throwing her barriers up to ward off any further attacks from the Reaper troops.
The bullets continued to pound mercilessly against her barrier as she ran towards the edge of the balcony, the open area looked like a copy and paste of the other area, but larger, and less devastated, just more abandoned. She dodged the gunfire of another cannibal, and almost yelled out in horror when she narrowly dodged the blow of a husk swipe. All the while she kept running, finding herself suddenly surrounded by Reaper foot soldiers. She desperately tried to escape their convergence, but there seemed to be more and more approaching, like they suddenly knew she existed and were devoting everything they had to killing her.
She screamed as she felt the claws of a husk scrape across her waist, trying desperately to ignore the pain that clawed up her side from the blow, and kept running, never stopping. But it wasn't long before she was out of floor, reaching the edge of the balcony and coming to an abrupt stop. All that lay down below was the city floor, and numerous flaming skyscrapers and dying innocents. She noticed two red dots down below, the size of shoes in her view, discovering them to be Destroyer-Class Reapers prodding down below, taking on the smaller targets bigger Reapers couldn't. She wracked her mind for answers to her problem, but suddenly came to a stop when she heard a loud wail, unlike anything she had ever heard before.
She froze, slowly turning to face whatever had made that horrific sound. When she turned, she saw all the husks converging still, ableit more slowly. But what she noticed emerging from the group was horrifying, disgusting and pure monstrosity.
The husk trudged forward on three-toed feet, three-fingered hands dangling at her sides, but now scythed like daggers, ready to slice her belly open. The woman had worn a full body enviro suit, but it was now split down the middle, what was left of it hanging loosely on whatever skin was left, most of it now covered totally in cybernetics. What had once been breasts were now two mechanical bumps full of machinery and lines of circuitry, now embedded in her once smooth grey skin. And then her eyes landed on that face...oh goddess, that awful face...
Her hood was still up, but torn, and her neck looked to have been sliced open by husk claws, only to be fixed and discarded as the person was transformed into a Reaper soldier. What had once been a beautiful face was now lined with cybernetics, the implants the person already had being modified and turned into immune boosters. Her eyes glowed more powerfully than before, and circuits and piping trailed into her mouth, her teeth all but completely removed, along with her tongue, nothing but dried red blood leaking from her mouth from where it had been cut. What had been black hair was beads of what looked to be electrically charged stringy pylons, dangling and conducting electricity. Aethyta continued to gape in horror, completely taken aback by the suddeness of this terrible abomination.
She was looking at a quarian husk. And, to her immense disgust, she knew just which quarian had been converted. Oh Dalra...you poor girl...I should have shot you and burnt your body...
The thing opened its mouth, wailing once more as it moved forward, dragging one foot behind the other on its steady approach. She raised her SMG and fired at it, but it merely pinged off of it, repulsed by a kinetic barrier. She unloaded the whole clip, but still nothing got through. She reloaded and fired again, aiming at the head, but still, the barrier did not relent. She finally emptied her whole clip, hoping for a result, but it was useless; the barrier was impenetrable. She noticed the pylons on her head, what had been her hair, glowed bright blue everytime the barrier activated. Something clicked in her head, and she looked at all the husks converging around her. The quarian husk...its a mobile shield generator plus soldier for the other husks. An impenetrable barrier for its troops that's...shit!
Before she knew it, all the husks had closed ranks, and now surrounded her. With her SMG now useless and out of ammo, she simply dumped it and unleashed a flurry of biotic fire, trying to delay them but, just like before, they were harmlessly absorbed by the quarian's barrier. She backed against the balcony, but when she neared it, a realization hit her, and she gulped. There's only one way out, and I'm not going to sit here and just die like Dalra did. She eyed the creature before her, nearing with every step, wailing, screeching. No, I see how that ended. I hope her death was quick. She stepped up to the edge, taking a deep breath. I'm sorry Liara, I should have been a better father, should have been there, should have told you. She smiled. Take care of her Shepard, you're one hell of a man. Keep her safe. And just as the quarian reached her, she put all her weight on her back, and closed her eyes as she felt her momentum take her off the edge, and she entered freefall towards the streets below.
And least she wouldn't become a...whatever you call an asari husk.
{Loading...}
June 13, 2186
1239 hours.
Eternity Bar, Business District, Nos Astra, Illium.
The Reaper War, Unprecedented Reaper Strike: Fall of Illium.
Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, Soldier Javik, Chieftain Urdnot Wrex, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, EDI, Flight Lieutenant Steve Cortez.
"Bring us closer for a drop!" Marcus shouted over the scream of the engines, holding tightly onto the shuttle as it moved closer, the hatch wide open as wind whipped against his helmet and armor heavily, Hurricane SMG in his other hand. He felt the presence of his squad behind him, weapons drawn and ready to deploy as Cortez aligned the hatch with the giant, gaping hole in the bar's wall. It looked like it had been breached a long while ago.
"That's the best I can do, Shepard!" Cortez shouted, desperately trying to be heard over the airhorn of a Reaper in the distance, "Any closer and I'll be leaving with half of the shuttle."
"Close enough!" he roared and quickly leapt out of the airborne vehicle, landing in a combat roll as he came into a crouch, scanning the surrounding area with his SMG, covered in dust and disturbing the old, withered debris with his abrupt landing. He grunted as he moved forward, motioning for the rest of the team to deploy.
All in all, the room was eerily quiet. The only sounds to be heard was what was happening in the city around and below him. Aside from that however, nothing disturbed the silence of the abandoned bar. The explosion that had caused the hole had destroyed a large swath of the room, with many tables vaporized or shredded. Bodies lay all over, either mauled or blown apart. But from what he could see, there were dozens of husks laying dead, along with bits of flesh that glowed, having only belonged to a abomination. There were indents in the floor that hinted to a brute, and when he saw the door on his right, torn open, it confirmed his thoughts. But as he scanned, he came to the relieved conclusion that none of the dead bodies could have killed this man husks; none looked to have put up a fight. Aethyta must have escaped. Her body isn't here.
"By the goddess..." Liara whimpered, taken aback by the sight of death, covering her nose as the stench reached her nose, "This is horrible. So much death..."
"Its probably worse back on Earth," James noted, stepping over the dead body of a husk as he kept an eye on the door, eyes down the sight of his favourite Revenant; the weapon had been modified with a scope and given a smart choke, meaning the weapon was now less sporadic and all focused; the rifled barrel making the light machine gun an even deadlier weapon. And with James' strength handling the immense recoil, the Revenant would be the deadliest fucker on the battlefield.
"And Palaven," Garrus mused sadly, his foot giving a wet slosh as he stepped and crushed a piece of discarded flesh, wincing from the sound and scraping it from his boot with his armoured hand.
Keeling moved over and looked over the side of the bar, shaking her head at him. He turned and looked at Wrex as he overturned another table, also shaking his head. Suddenly, Javik moved up and approached him, "The asari's father is not here. She has either been converted or escaped. Either one is likely."
He raised an eyebrow at the prothean, shocked, "You know who Aethyta is?"
"No," the soldier rasped, "I merely read the asari's thoughts."
"I may have reluctantly been...compelled to let him," Liara stated, sighing as she rubbed her forehead.
"Well, if Aethyta isn't here, we should get moving," Marcus declared, turning to the door, "Come on, we should try down there. The quicker we extract Aethyta the better we are off. We can't stay here for long."
"That's...insensitive," Liara curtly stated, glowering at him.
He gave her an apologetic look, "Not much we can do about this, Liara. Illium is falling whether we like it or not. There's nothing we can do but do what we came here to do. Save Aethyta, get out of here," he motioned to the door, "Javik, Garrus, you take point. Wrex, EDI, I want you covering me. Everyone else, keep an eye out and don't fall behind," he turned to the shuttle, shouting, "Cortez! Get into orbit, avoid being spotted and wait until we call for extraction! Do not leave for the Normandy until I give the order!"
"See you guys soon!" Cortez called out before he brought the shuttle up and disappeared once more, leaving the squad to themselves. Cracking his neck, Marcus moved forward, not giving the squad time to register the unsaid command verbally; they merely fell into line and followed him.
They moved through the shattered doorway, and immediately came face to face with a group of stationary husks, who looked to have been standing still until his team arrived. Garrus and Javik picked them off immediately, the prothean's particle rifle cutting through flesh like a hot knife, and Garrus' mattock chewing it like shredded cheese. When they were done, all four husks had been taken out and lay on the ground in a heap, leaking their life into the cracked steel floor. There was no time to stop; reloading, they continued moving with fluidity, moving at a speed and need that warranted no stopping.
As they rounded the corner, he lowered his SMG and looked down range at the doorway dead ahead, also torn off its hinges, this time with the doors being violently thrown into a wall ahead, sparks flying from the torn circuitry in the wall. He carefully moved down the broken stairwell, trying not to make too much sound, his squad following his example except for Wrex, who was just too damn heavy anyway.
Once at the bottom, he joined Javik and Garrus and bumped against the wall, switching his SMG for his mattock and sighting down range at the Business District directly ahead. His scope swept over the area, looking for hostile targets, and quickly found them in the form of a marauder and a group of cannibals, which looked to be gunning down a group of civilians who were hiding. There was nothing he could do for them now; by the time he reacted, they'd all be dead anyway. But we can damn well avenge them. He turned from his scope, motioning for Javik and Garrus to distract them while he took everyone else and gunned them down.
The entire thing happened perfectly; Garrus and Javik drew their fire, everyone else did the rest. Wrex even had some fun in batting a cannibal's face into a gorey mush with his claymore, while everyone else fired from long range, cutting through the Reaper lines. Cannibals fell almost instantly from the maelstrom of fire directed at them, and the marauder's shields were wittled down pretty quickly, the final kill made by Kasumi as her SMG shot and blew its head apart, a thick curtain of black viscera exploding from the back of its shrieking skull as it flew backwards onto the ground, effectively dead.
He lowered his smoking rifle and trudged forward, reloading as he did but keeping a careful eye out for any further hostile forces. Seeing as none presented themselves, he moved at faster pace, ignoring the large crane that loomed over them as he crossed the barely recognizable district, the entire area bombed out and practically obliterated. He didn't even seem to notice the massive Reaper in the distance, bigger than the others, and looking directly in his direction.
But apparently neither did his squad, as they simply followed behind him, also coming to a stop as he did, the spectre gazing up at the office that loomed over them.
"That used to be yours," Marcus mused, talking to noone in particular, but the person in question seemed to get it and Liara stumbled forward, nodding her head as she did.
"And now its a wreck," the asari replied, shaking her head, "We don't have time for nostalgia, Shepard. Aethyta needs our help."
"I know, I know," he replied, sighing as he felt his shoulders go lax, "Just thought...never mind, let's get this over with. Let's consider her options," he pointed to the area leading to the dock, "She can't go very far in that direction. Besides, its cut off," he noted the giant piece of debris blocking its entrance, having fallen from above. He turned to look at the corridor moving under Liara's old office, "Her only option would be there, so that's where we'll go."
"We're not going to check the office, loco?" James quizzed, frowning, "She could be hiding there."
"Not likely," Keeling replied, "If she's smart, she'll know that the Reapers are very methodical searchers, and she couldn't hope to hide in such an open space for very long. No, she's not hiding up there; it simply makes no sense. But if you want us to search anyway, sir..." she trailed off, turning to look at Marcus.
He shook his head, "No, you're right. Aethyta never struck me as stupid, and she would know that the place is a foolhardy place to hide in," he pointed to the doorway, turning to his squad, "Everyone, fall in. We've got more searching to do. And I don't care what our main mission is," he sternly stated, "We are going to help any civilians we come across. We can't save everyone, but we will save as many people as we can."
"A foolish detour. They will only drag us down," Javik pointed out, clearly irritated at the prospect, "But you are the commander."
"Thank you for that Javik. I never knew," he exasperated, shaking his head as he stepped forward to move ahead, but instead found himself bumping into something. He grunted, shifting his helmet back into position as he gazed upwards, frowning. It was a tripod; a tall, slim structure standing on three metal legs with the base having a large spike pointing out-
He backed away in horror, whilst also growling as he primed a grenade, telling his team to get back. It was a dragon's tooth; an Alliance nickname for the devices the Reapers used to convert people into husks. They pulled the victim ontop and impaled them on the device. From there, the process began; the gradual conversion of organic into cybernetic monstrosity. The device right now was fully extended, no body present but had red blood coating the entire stem, dried and crusted, but still horrifying to look at. This tooth had taken a victim, but it was red blooded, so that meant batarian or human. So...a husk or cannibal at worst. No biggy. Still, I hope the poor bastard was dead when they converted him/her...He ordered his team to back away and then tossed the grenade, backing away himself to a safe distance as he watched it detonate, red fire engulfing the object and blasting it apart, the Reaper tech not surviving as it was torn asunder and its debris tossed away. He watched it for a few more seconds afterward, watching the smoke clear and letting the debris settle before he moved forward once more, "Don't follow my example. Come on, let's get moving."
He moved to go through the torn open door, but quickly stopped when he heard shouting, and moaning. He frowned, twisting his head in confusion at his squad before turning back, rifle raised in preparation for what lay ahead. Carefully, he stepped through the remnants of the door, carefully stepping over a dead husk as he trudged forward.
An inhuman wail echoed through the room, followed by cursing. Someone was alive, and he recognized the voice, but he didn't focus on it, only that wail. It was definitely a husk, but he hadn't the sound from any husk he'd met before. Even brutes didn't sound as demonic. As...evil. It hurt his ears, still ringing through them even after it had gone away. What...what was that?
The sounds grew closer until an asari rounded the corner, her clothes torn and bloodied. She wielded an old-fashioned knife in her grip, biotics shimmering around her body as she ran, shouting as she sent a biotic shockwave through the doorway she came from, obviously trying to delay something. She grunted and continued running in their direction, body signs showing extreme fatigue; she looked about to collapse, but kept pushing forward, terrified.
Suddenly, she looked up and skidded to a stop, confused, but relieved all at the same time. "Oh thank the goddess. But how did you-?" she cut herself off when she saw something past his shoulder that sent her face blank, and he turned to see Liara, looking at Aethyta with a relieved smile on her face. He had to stay, the matriarch looked like shit; her face was covered in cuts, purple blood crusted around them and staining her face as she looked like she rode through hell. She turned to him, smiling, "Commander Shepard, aren't you a sight for sore fucking eyes."
"Its Cap-oh, fuck it," he exclaimed, turning back to her, "Its good to see you again, Aethyta. Glad for the rescue?"
"Very," the matriarch declared, turning over her shoulder, "Although I doubt you're here for me." Silence filled the corridor, and she looked at them incredulously. Her eyes finally remet Liara's, "Please tell me you're not."
"Unfortunately...yes, we are," Liara nervously replied, rubbing the back of her neck, "We heard Illium had come under attack June 10, and I knew you were in trouble. I couldn't just leave you to die, so I asked for Shepard's help in rescuing you."
"Of all the things..." she cursed, slamming her fist against a wall. Before she could say anything though, that wail sounded again, sending goosebumps prickling along his spine as he heard it, the asari whirling in its direction, "Fuck! Its her again! Run!"
"What?"
"Trust me. Fucking run! This is one fight you can't win! I don't care how badass you are, you don't have the bullets-"
The wail shrieked again, and this time it was...directly in front of them.
He looked up, eyes landing on the creature that stood at the end of the hallway, limping towards them. It was a horrid abomination, but there was something about the glowing eyes, torn suit hanging off its limbs and-wait, that did sound too familiar. Suddenly, his eyes widened in horror and he felt his weapon shaking slightly in his grip. My God, that was a quarian...a female quarian...but how...?
His ears popped as a sudden burst of machine gun fire roared past his head, impacting the husk. Its hair-like pylons on its head glowed bright blue and the rounds bounced harmlessly off its shield. Not a single bullet got through, and when James finished emptying the clip, he could only look on in shock.
Aethyta rushed past him, "Its shields are impenetrable. Nothing breaks through that barrier! I saw them use it as a mobile shield generator!" she growled, "Come on! We need to go! We aren't going to be able to stop that thing! You've got me, so let's get the fuck out of here!"
Marcus just continued to stand there in shock, eying the quarian with terror in his eyes. Every bone in his body seemed to freeze, every muscle going numb as he gulped, unable to move. He stayed like this for a bit until he felt a three-fingered hand grasp his wrist, a voice shouting into his ear that immediately woke him up, "Marcus, snap out of it and run! We need to call Cortez for extraction!"
He turned to him, nodding quickly as he turned in the turian's direction, running alongside him as they headed in the direction of the Eternity Bar. They continued to run, the rest of the squad up ahead and following Aethyta as they moved as fast as they could, desperately trying to escape the unstoppable monstrosity. Javik and Wrex remained behind, hoping to delay it long enough for them to extract and escape to the bar.
As he ran, he commed Cortez's shuttle, "Cortez, we need extraction now, on the double! Same area as deployment, and hurry! We have Aethyta but we are being pursued by a new form of Reaper soldier," he turned back to look at the creature, the...Chimera, as he chose to call it. The creature seemed to be moving at the same pace, incapable of fast movement, and it had just rounded the corner and turned to them as he reached the epicenter of the area. He froze in place once more as he locked eyes with it, looking into its pale depths and unable to hear Cortez's response.
He heard shouting, but he turned to Garrus, shaking his head, "No, I need to take this thing down. Go, I'll deal with this," he barked, turning back as he prepped his claymore, hoping to get in close enough to take out the huskified quarian. Whatever beauty she once had was now a disgusting, pale grey monster, incapable of emotion or any other feelings apart from those its master gave it. He prepped the weapon and took aim, aware that one of his squad members was watching, but taking no notice as he took aim, sighting down range at what had to be her torso, the creature wailing once more.
He felt his grip on the shotgun become taunt, tight as a bowstring as he tapped the trigger, but did not fix around it or pull it. In that instant, it seemed his resolve failed him, the man unable to do it. For some reason, as he looked at the creature, he just couldn't pull the trigger. He felt sweat collecting on his brow, and the creature coming uncomfortably closer, but still, he could not fire. What's wrong with me!? Just pull the fucking trigger! Kill the monster! But he couldn't; it was like someone else had taken control of his body, and instead of horror, his emotions became...sad? Melancholic? Sorrowful? What the hell? He didn't know who this quarian was, so why did he suddenly feel sad?
Why did he feel like weeping instead of pulling the trigger? Why did he want to die?
His muscles screamed in protest from the stress he placed on the gun, but he still couldn't fire, and suddenly the creature was a meter away. It was then he hit a realization, and he looked up at the husk's face. Instead of the ugly deformity he expected to see, he saw a familiar face; black hair flowing from her scalp, smooth cheeks and freckles, accompanied by supple lips and bright silver eyes, glowing with warmth. And then suddenly they sagged, melted, circuitry appearing, and he was once more looking at the abomination before him, getting closer. He recognized the face, and he had to choke back a sob.
Tali. When he saw this beast, this...quarian husk, all he could see was Tali, and as far as he was concerned, pulling the trigger and killing it was like killing Tali. What if she turned into this emotionless foot soldier? What if she became a chimera? Could he do it? Could he pull the trigger?
The answer was in his pose right now, how he stood, how he froze. No, he couldn't.
Suddenly, all sound returned, and he heard Garrus' voice, "MARCUS! GET OUT OF THERE!"
He shook his head, but was too late as he found the beast right infront of him, maw stretching as it wailed right in his face. He moved to raise the shotgun, but found it slapped aside, the beast shoving him as he tripped and fell onto his back, landing with a loud clang. Fear reentered his body as he looked up in terror at the beast, desperately crawling backwards and away from it, trying to escape. It sluggishly followed, trying to catch up, but his crawling intensified in speed and, for a second, he thought he might escape.
But then suddenly, a familiar voice. But not a welcome one.
"Shepard."
He whirled right, his body freezing up once more as he found the enormous form of a Reaper looming over them, his squad seeming rooted to the spot as well as they looked at the towering gargantuan. But as he looked, he recognized the structure of the Reaper, and realized it wasn't the standard capital ship. Instead of being two kilometers long, it was six, towering over even the Dantius Towers in the distance and gleaming with crimson and orange metal armor plating. This one also had eyes, and they glowed with ferocious, yellow intent. He gulped, his throat dry.
Harbinger.
"Your resistance means little; you are but a spec in the scheme of the galaxy," Harbinger boomed, shifting one of its legs as its eyes seemed to glare at him, "You can continue to resist, but you cannot continue to triumph. Your pathetic attempt to fight shall be snuffed out. You are but dust struggling against cosmic winds, and now the cosmic winds must become fire." And before he knew it, he heard the familiar glow and sound of a thanix cannon charging.
He only got time to cover his eyes as a tongue of red hot tungsten shot past at hyper velocity, this one the bright orange of Harbinger's personal thanix batteries, the weapon cutting through the balcony like it was made of butter as it just missed Marcus and vaporized the quarian husk before him, the chimera reduced to dust as its body was blown apart at an atomic level by the superheated shell as it blew through Liara's office, cutting through it, neverending, until finally the beam stopped, its carnage ceasing as a massive hole was left, having eaten through Liara's old office, the corridor below it, and the area on the other side. Well, at least the Chimera's gone. But why did he miss? Harbinger never misses...
Suddenly, he heard a loud groan, and he looked below him, hearing further groans, and then cracks, followed by what sounded like metal beams snapping. Harbinger remained unmoving, and all he heard was his squadmates shouting at him to get up as he felt the ground begin to shake, getting lower and lower. His eyes widened. He wasn't aiming to kill me...
The ground then caved in, and he felt himself enter freefall as the floor disappeared and he sored down to meet the ground below, debris falling all around him.
...he was aiming to seperate him from the squad.
He closed his eyes as the floor below rushed up to meet him.
{Loading...}
June 13, 2186
1306 hours.
Foyer, Business District, Nos Astra, Illium.
The Reaper War, Unprecedented Reaper Strike: Fall of Illium.
Captain Marcus Lee Shepard.
He woke up to an agonizing darkness. He felt a coppery taste in his mouth, but it mattered nill in the grand scheme of things, eyes trying to open, but feeling as if they were taped shut, his eyes unable to do anything but flutter inside of their prison. His head hurt, as did the rest of his body, and he found himself able to move everything but his right leg. He tried to move it, but his body was unresponsive; the only response he got was a large burst of pain up his spine, convincing him to stop moving as he groaned, the sound seeming...dry. Raspy.
He heard a roar. It sounded synthetic, cybernetic; a deep bass with heavy undertones that was forboding and dark, shaking him to the core. He heard another roar, this one more distant, more primal. A stomp, and the ground shook beneath, but it seemed that it hardly affected him. He groaned again, just as dry as it was before, and it hurt his throat to breathe, like the substance he inhaled was choking him, burning his mouth. He once again struggled to rise, to open his eyes: again, all he got was agony, pain flaring all around him like a lightning flash, before it was gone again.
A voice echoed in his ear, piercing his deafness, as if its voice demanded priority over the other sounds around him, "Here you fall, Shepard, weak and deluded. Here you fall, where you are unable to stop our power. Here you fall...powerless against our might. You will be harvested."
Suddenly, the ache in his skull became more prominent, almost like a migraine. He grunted, his eyes seeming to release their pressure as he rolled to the side, feeling something crunch under him as his armor crushed it, his hip throbbing as he felt light try to invade the darkness, his face no longer pressed against the marble of the floor. He pried his eyelids open, wincing from the brief sting that resulted from it, realizing he must have torn a few eyelashes. He winced from the sudden burst of light, but quickly adapted as he absorbed his surroundings.
He didn't move, merely looking up. He could see where he had fallen; a hole where he had been standing. He wanted to widen his eyes in shock when he saw just how high he had fallen, but neglected to do so, groaning again as more discomfort flooded his body. That balcony...I must have fallen a few hundred feet. How the fuck did I survive that? The Business District he remembered was now destroyed; rubble and dust falling in a steady cloud, and he saw what looked to be a piece of someone's spine latched onto a loose cable, their body completed shredded in two and flesh hanging from loose ligaments of cracked bone, their bone seared black. He almost gagged at the sight, turning his eyes away to look around. Fuck me...
He had fallen through the roof, finding himself inside what looked to be the main atrium of the building; the Foyer, something the asari seemed fond of. The room was definitely very majestic, smooth and beautiful; all the qualities found in asari architecture. Now the room was a bloodbath; as he looked around, he saw bodies littering the room, blood ranging from red to purple to blue to white coating the floor in thick puddles, all having dried out long ago. The room had looked like the sight of some battle; the walls were riddled with bullet holes, one side of the room had been blown inwards, and a chandalier type object had collapsed from the ceiling and smashed into the ground. He looked, and saw the main entrance; a door that had long been blown off its hinges by invading hordes of Reaper husks.
He looked down on his body, ignoring the lights blaring down on him as he surveyed his body. He had cracked a few ribs, that much was for sure, and he knew he must have done something to his mouth, because he could still taste blood. He felt woozy, and his headache really wasn't helping matters. He cradled it, moving to stand up, but once again, agony lanced up from his right leg, and he howled, looking down.
He almost gagged at the sight of his disjointed leg, bent at an unnatural angle. I've broken it. I've broken my fucking leg. In retrospect, he knew he shouldn't have expected not to get critical injuries from falling a few hundred feet, but he didn't think the injuries would be so...severe. He was happy he hadn't broken his spine, or else he'd be dead, but that still didn't make it easy. His hands shot down to the throbbing, useless leg, and he realized that his leg was also burning, not literally, but it felt like it was on fire. He would recognize that feeling anywhere.
My regeneration must be taking effect. Its slowly healing my basic injuries, but I need to get this leg fixed by Chakwas and Michel before its healed. He summoned his omni-tool, imputting the command for painkillers to injected into him, and he became limp again, growling through the quickly disappearing pain as morphine filled his body. The feeling was quite euphoric, and he would have sighed happily at the feeling were it not for his predicament. Suddenly, he seemed to come to realize just where he was and tried to comm Cortez, but there was no luck; not even static showed up. Frowning, he observed his HUD, and found the comms said 'no signal.'
He moved to check his weapons, sighing as he pulled out his Hurricane SMG, only to find the plastic casing warped and twisted from his fall, heat leaking from a ruptured thermal clip inside, and the barrel ruined. He tossed the weapon away and moved to try his mattock when he remembered it had been on his back during the fall; no doubt it suffered even worse. Still, he decided it best to be rid of it in case it did extra damage. He unholstered it, tossing the wrecked casing away, some of it not only having cracked, but some of it had actually split and revealed the dark grey shell underneath. He tried his claymore, but remembered the chimera had swiped it aside; likely disintegrated by Harbinger's beam now. Fuck, now I'm defenseless...wait...
He summoned his omni-tool and selected the icon for his omni-bow, whistling as it worked and came to life. He tried his omni-blade next, then his omni-shield. His omni-tool was in full operation, and so was all its functions. He checked his kinetic barriers, and found them to be working but damaged, and he could only manage 60 percent shields. That was enough, he decided.
He made his next priority to stand up, readying his armor to deploy a flare; it was a backup device in the armor in case communications failed. The flare had an ID marker attached to it with the IFF of the side deploying it, and he had no doubt Cortez would detect the Alliance identifier and come and pick him up. He just hoped the launcher wasn't destroyed; it was on his back.
He moved to stand when Harbinger trespassed upon his mind once more, this time much more prominently, "Shepard, why do you continue to persist? Lay down your life and you shall be ascended to a higher form; you will serve us and you will see the folly of your resistance. You cannot stop the momentum of our arrival. The inertia of our coming. We are unequalled, unparelled. You cannot begin to comprehend us."
"So...you've told...me. Still...don't care. So fuck you," he hissed, spitting out whatever blood remained in his mouth that wasn't dry, and turning to his side, looking for something to hoisten him up. He found nothing. He heard footfalls, but when he turned, there was nothing. Frowning, he returned to his work, trying to block out the Reaper leader's response.
"Your ignorance and arrogance continues to blind you," the beast boomed, unmoved by Marcus' words as it always seemed to be. The Illusive Man was immeasurable calm, while Harbinger was just muted anger, "The cycles before you fell; they also were blind and could not see the inevitability of their destruction. We were their salvation through destruction, just as we are during this cycle. You will be harvested, despite your refusal to acknowledge our victory. You will watch as the rest of your civilization burns around you, and you will have helped in its fall."
"If you still...think you can...convince me..." he growled, dragging himself along the ruined floor to a steel pipe he could use as a temporary crutch, armor scraping loudly as it overruled the sound of approaching feet behind him, "You haven't been...paying attention. I...will end you. These cycles...have gone on...long enough. Not...this one. No, not this...one..."
"We will hear no more. Your fate is sealed," Harbinger dictated, "You will serve us, Shepard. You will be our servant. Our boon. Our adjutant. You will lead just as Arterius did, and when your usefulness has concluded, you will ascend to Reaper form. Serve us, Shepard. It is your destiny."
"There is no...fate...but of that which...we make...for ourselves..." he blurted, almost reaching the pipe ahead of him. He didn't like what the Reaper hinted at in its voice, but he pressed onwards, ignoring it. For some reason, he felt its presence like it was looming over him, but he shook the feeling as he pressed on. Suddenly however, the pipe infront of him was crushed by a large fist and he jumped, looking up as he began to back away.
A brute towered over him, eyes blank as always and leering at him as it simply stood vigil, looking down at him. But for a reason he couldn't discern, it made no movements to try and kill him; it simply stood there, glaring at him, as if daring him to make a move.
"Ignorance born of atheistic intepretation," was the Reaper's bored response, "But you will serve us, Shepard. Assuming direct control!" It boomed, and suddenly the brute's eyes glowed bright orange, its entire body wreathing in its light as Marcus was reminded of the Collectors. But even possessed, the brute did not move. "Your intervention ends here, Shepard. Today...you will be ours."
He felt a three-toed foot press into his back, metallic claws digging into it. He turned slightly and managed to catch a view of a marauder's face in his peripherals, but nothing else, and as he looked around, he saw two more marauders, dozens of cannibals, another brute, a few scions, hundreds of husks and abominations and three praetorians surrounded him, all standing in a tight circle as they looked at him, unmoving. Only two marauders seemed to stand next to him, and the brute. He gulped, looking around him. Fuck, I'm bloody surrounded. What the fuck do I do? How the fuck do I get out of this? Shit, think, goddamn it, think! There has to be a way!
But everywhere he looked, all he saw was Reaper foot soldiers, legions of them standing around him, cutting off any escape. And with a broken right leg, I can't exactly fight my way out; even if I could, there's too many of them. I'd be overwhelmed. But why aren't they attacking? Why don't they just maul me for godsake?
"Well?" he shouted, looking at the creatures, but if Harbinger made any effort to respond, it was unheard. He growled, shouting louder, "WELL!? KILL ME ALREADY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?" There was a shuffle behind the line, but they still made no moves to charge. He scanned them, incredulous. But before he could speak again, the line broke, and another praetorian appeared, carrying a large bulky device that made Marcus' heart leap into his throat.
It was carrying another dragon's tooth.
Still carrying it under its bulk, it turned upwards and dropped it, the device landing perfectly on all three of its legs and coming to a standstill, spike lowered but the device humming in readiness. He shuffled, trying to crawl back as he looked around in fear and confusion, but the marauders latched onto his arms, holding him firm. He tried to escape their grip, but it was powerful and before he knew it, a pulse went through his arm, overloading his omni-tool and disabling it. He tried out from the shock and continued to struggle, but nothing worked. The possessed brute came to stand before him, its shadow casting darkness over his features as he looked up, pure trepidation in his eyes as he refused to accept what the Reaper was about to confirm.
"This is your destiny, Shepard," the Reaper stated, "You will serve us. You will be ours, as you already are."
You will be ours, as you already are. He wanted to scream, but found he couldn't as the brute stepped out of the way, the two marauders flanking him began to drag him forwards and towards the tooth...
...ready to convert him into a husk.
He kicked and struggled, but all it did was cause more pain in his broken limb and for his ribs to flare, and he felt hot tears form in his eyes as he tried desperately to escape; headbutt them, kick them, punch them, anything.
I can't die like this! I won't serve them! I won't! I will not become one of those...things! Please, God no! I can't go out like this! No, please! He found himself actually screaming at the unfairness of his eventual death, but the husks did not listen or acknowledge him, and merely watched as he was dragged to his death. As he was brought close enough to the dragon's tooth to touch it, he felt himself stop struggling, and just look at it in defeat, holding back a sob. No, he would not give them that benefit. He would not show them his fear. But he did let his tears flow free, hot, salty water trailing down his cheeks. Please...no...Tali...
"Till death do us part," were her words.
I want to see her again! I can't die like this! Its not my time! I'm not ready to die! Not like this...
He felt the marauder's begin to lift him ontop of the object, and his body went numb, succumbing to his fate. I'm sorry...I just hope they don't recognize me...otherwise they'll never be able to put me down...and Tali...oh Tali...
I love you, sweetheart. I'm so sorry I had to go off and die like this.
It was trap, it always was. This is why Harbinger attacked Illium, and he knew it. All just so he could break me and convert me into his little toy. Nothing but a pathetic husk who claws things; mindless, frail and dead. A literal husk of what I was.
He watched as the metal got closer and closer, and he felt the cool surface beckoning to him. With his final thoughts, he felt oddly...content. Well...it can't be that bad...
Serve us, Shepard.
Serve us.
Serve us.
Serve us.
Serve us.
Serve us.
He felt himself meeting the metal alot faster than he thought, and his helmet knocked against the object as he slumped back onto the ground. His vision returned instantly, his content replaced with fear, and then confusion, the voices vanishing from his head. He blinked, turning around as he rolled onto his back. What the-
He turned in time to see one of his marauder captors collapse to the ground, its arm totally severed along with its right eye socket blown open, both leaking black ichor onto the ground. The second marauder screeched in defiance, whirling to face its attackers, only for electricity to wrack its body as it spasmed, its rifle falling from its grip as it jerked.
The marauder, still jerking, quickly found its head blasted off by a hot beam of light, the particle rifle chewing through like melting chocolate as it fell to the ground in a pile of liquid iron armor plating. He didn't know what was going on for certain, but he had a feeling he did. They've come for me. I'm not going to die here! I won't!
He rolled back onto his belly and began dragging himself along towards the source of the gunfire, looking up to observe the carnage as he heard a loud explosion. Looking up, he watched the shredded remains of husks, cannibals and abominations go flying like torn paper, flesh raining from the sky in thick rivlets. Another explosion sounded, tearing apart another hole and tearing an entire line of scions into bloody ribbons. He laughed maniacally as he watched, bathing in the sight of legions of Reaper soldiers being blown to smithereens.
Suddenly, his ears seemed to explode with noise, Harbinger roaring into his ears; he swore he heard...anger? Fury? No. What he heard was much more terrifying. Rage. Reaper rage. Harbinger was pissed off.
"YOU WILL SUBMIT! ALL OF YOU, PATHETIC SPECS OF DUST AND MATTER!" Harbinger screamed, pure unhinged fury sweeping through his ears and sending him into a spasm as his eardrums were assaulted, "THERE IS NOWHERE YOU CAN HIDE WHERE WE WILL NOT FIND YOU! YOU ARE OURS! YOU ARE MINE! ACCEPT YOUR FATE AS ARTERIUS HAS BEFORE YOU! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!"
Despite the fury he felt, Marcus could only grin triumphantly. I managed to infuriate a Reaper, and their leader at that. I have to be doing something right. Suddenly, he felt a familiar shadow loom over him, and turned to see the possessed brute towering above-
-only to have its upper body shredded to pieces by a loud whine, bullets moving at a constant speed at 500 m/s tearing into the brute's heavy armor and ripping it asunder. The brute roared in anger and tried to push forward, but a concussion shot blew it back, and the assault finally tore its tiny turian head apart, downing the savage creature, coming to rest with a resounding thud. The whine stopped, but continued again as it seemed to get closer, and closer...
He heard voices, muffled but intelligible, "Help me get him up!" he heard a curse, "Shit, he's broken his leg! Wrex, we need you to help-"
"Forget that pyjak. There's no time," he heard the krogan respond and suddenly Marcus was in the air and tossed over the krogan's shoulder, his vision filled with red armor as his helmet banged against the krogan's back. He shook his head, looking up to see what was happening.
Garrus was at Wrex's side, shouting orders to the squad. James stood nearby, holding in his grip a massive looking heavy machine gun that he had lowered to his waist to hip fire, the weapon absolutely tearing apart everything around him, husks, brutes, all of it. As he squinted his eyes, he smiled. No, not a heavy machine gun. A minigun. Good, old fashioned, high-caliber, multi-round spitting, high-speed destruction.
"Let's get out of here, pyjaks! Same way we came, but Javik, you better leave me some kills!" Wrex roared, and he heard Javik laugh in agreement. He suddenly felt the krogan rush forward, and he felt his body jolt and jump with every krogan's footfall, but he knew he was getting closer to escape with every one. The rest of the squad followed behind, taking out numerous scores of husks on their path to freedom. He could see Kasumi and EDI covering James' back, and Keeling was using herself as a shield to shield him from enemy return fire. All of them...going to these lengths to save me...am I even worth that kind of devotion?
Serve us.
He shouted that voice out, feeling light-headed when he did; why did that voice bring him such pleasure? Why did he yearn to hear it again?
He felt light on his back as Wrex exited the building, coming outside as the rest of the squad joined him, James taking up the rear as he sprayed the entrance with a tornado of high-powered death, killing even more husks in his frenzy.
He heard a thunderous crash, followed by the boom of a building's supports shattering as it came to crash nearby. Dust and smoke kicked up in the air as they were covered, all of them coughing and sputtering. They only recovered in time to hear a loud roar, the sound of a Reaper airhorn.
"SUBMIT AND END YOUR PAIN!" Harbinger growled from above, "SURRENDER YOURSELF AND BE ONE WITH SOLITUDE!"
"Let...me see..." Marcus ordered, tapping Wrex's shoulder, "Let...me see, damn it!" He coughed, dust entering his lungs as he gagged, and the krogan complied, turning him over so he fell into his arms, allowing him to look up. In that instant, his shoulder slooped, as he was sure was happening with the rest of his team.
There stood Harbinger, six kilometers tall, glaring down upon them with its four, yellow eyes, fury in their depths and looking condescendingly on them as it viewed them, nothing but insects to its size and might. Microbes. Behind it was a path of destruction; buildings toppled and decimated, dust and smoke rising into the darkened sky, fires crackling and death reeking the place like a death cloud.
"Spirits..." Garrus gulped, "Cortez, pick up, now!"
Its no use...
"Harbinger," Javik hissed, "It is just as big as the last cycle."
...he'll just shoot us down...
He heard the roar of Cortez's shuttle, the sound overwhelmed by the sound of Harbinger's airhorn as he watched it shuffle slightly, one leg flinching, prepared to move as the kodiak lowered, engines igniting as it prepared to hover. He heard James shout, minigun clicking empty as he dropped it, slamming into the ground with a loud crash as he ran to join them, "Garrus, we need to leave! I'm out of ammo and we-" he looked up, eyes widening as the hand reaching for his Revenant dropped to his side, seeing just how useless and puny such a weapon would be against such might, "Dios mio..."
"Cortez, step on it!" Garrus shouted desperately.
He didn't hear Cortez's response, but apparently Garrus didn't like it as he snarled, "Harbinger is fucking standing right here. If you don't hurry up, he'll-"
Garrus' interrupted assumption was made quite clear when Harbinger's underside began to glow bright orange, only needing one of his thanix batteries to be charged to decimate them. But he won't...he'll kill them...and leave me alive...
"You will be ours, Shepard," Harbinger spoke, his voice seeming to be alot lower this time and less angry, as if more certain of victory now, "As a consequence for your futile resistance, you will now watch what you call your friends, your comrades, your fellow organics, burn and wither and atomize. You will smell their sizzling flesh, and then you will serve us. Serve us."
Serve us.
Serve us.
Serve us.
"NO!" he roared, cradling his head as he shouted defiance at the towering monster, "NEVER! I WILL NOT SUBMIT!"
"Shepard?" Garrus asked, confused, "What are you talking about?"
He turned to Garrus, ignoring his question, "Run! Get back inside! RUN! HE'S GOING TO FIRE!"
The turian widened his eyes, turning to the rest of the squad, "Fall back insi-"
They were too late, forced to watch as Harbinger's thanix gave a loud report, thin beam of orange tungsten shooting forward to reduce them to bloodied atoms...
...only for it to completely miss and fire in a wide arc, beam of light shooting off to the side and cutting through the foyer behind them, collapsing it as it crushed the rest of the husks inside. The beam continued its arc, scything through a building on the left and then stopping at a third one, completely gutting all three. Marcus didn't even notice it stop, he could only grin as he watched the blue light finish its attack, vapor and debris shooting off from the impact site.
While the Normandy's thanix shot hadn't even penetrated Harbinger's shield, it had left scoring on its side, and Harbinger tilted slightly as the frigate flew past, Joker no doubt shouting victory. By that time, Wrex was already rushing into the parked shuttle, using Harbinger's distraction to board it and escape. He felt himself suddenly dumped unceremoniously in a seat, feeling the shuttle's engines immediately fire up and the vehicle shoot up into the air, moving past the turning Harbinger. The Reaper hadn't even realized they were gone until they were already in atmo, disappearing behind the clouds.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to look at Garrus as he felt something poke into his neck, "You're going to be okay, Marcus. Just hang in there..."
"What did you..." he felt woozy, and realized he had been sedated, "No! You can't! You...don't...please...don't make me...sslleeeepppp..." but it was useless, and the darkness quickly consumed him.
I don't want to sleep. Don't make me sleep.
For only nightmares awaited him.
{Loading...}
They were too late, forced to watch as Harbinger's thanix gave a loud report, thin beam of orange tungsten shooting forward to reduce them to bloodied atoms...
...the beam hit, cutting through the ground as his squad disappeared. The high-velocity shell completely evicerated their bodies, reducing them to tiny chunks of meat as they were torn apart, bone splintering into debris and muscle vaporizing as he watched. Only he was left, along with the krogan who held him. They were gone, just gone. He roared in anguish, tears stinging his eyelids as he watched his friends, his turian brother, reduced to a pulpy, steaming mass of debris on a wall. Nothing was left of them; not even a spot of blood.
Wrex grunted as he turned, Marcus still in his arms, growling as a husk nipped at his ankle, disembodied from its legs and crawling. Wrex smashed its skull with his foot, splintering it open. But the attack did not stop; more husks emerged, all human, and they came in a steady stream. After about three kills, Wrex gave up killing them and retreated into a nearby building, and he could only hear Harbinger's taunting words echoing in his ears.
Serve us.
Serve us.
Serve us.
"I can't continue to carry you. I need to fight them off," the krogan declared, placing him down behind a piece of concrete.
He shook his head, groaning as he felt his head placed against the hard surface, "No..." he rasped, "Don't go. You'll die...don't go Wrex! DON'T GO!"
The krogan ignored him as he ran around the corner, disappearing from sight and giving a tremendous roar as he listened to him engage the husks in battle. Like a pathetic, mewling, terrified infant, he wept, growling as he tried to chain his emotions as he listened to Wrex's war cries become more strangled. He felt something thump against the concrete behind him, and he felt his tears mix in with orange blood...Wait, mix in...
His hands shot to his face, cold metal meeting his face. His helmet was missing. He felt the thick, orange coating trickle down his face, Marcus steadiy looking up as he gazed into Wrex's eyes, his head hanging off a torn spine and blood red eyes dead and blank. He felt himself scream, but no sound came out, and he barely felt the taste of the orange blood dripping into his mouth. He moved to crawl away, pushing away dirt and debris as he tried. He didn't get very far before a familiar figure towered over him, and he was once again being dragged by two marauders towards a dragon's tooth, kicking and roaring.
He clenched his eyes shut as he watched the object come into view, intimidating despite not being fully deployed. He tried one last time to escape, but he was already there, and before he knew it, he was over it, and being lowered. He felt the cool metal push against his stomach, not even bothering to look down as he knew his armor had also mysteriously vanished. It pressed against his belly, and he could only look at the ground as he heard a triumphant roar in the background.
You are ours.
A sharp stab of pain, of agony, his body elevating into the air rapidly as all air seemed to be stolen from his lungs, his heart stopping and eyes rolling into the back of his head as he jolted, having reached the top. He didn't even feel what followed as he blacked out.
He screamed, sitting up from the toilet. He shook his head, rubbing at his tired eyes as he came to stand, moving to the sink. He sighed, the sound raspy and dry-throated, and he didn't feel okay. He growled, shaking his head again, but he still felt...paranormal. Like he wasn't himself. He shook the feeling and turned on the cold water tap, splashing it against his face multiple times before looking up into the mirror.
He stared back at the husk that glared back at him, mouth full of rotted teeth, non-existent lips and mindless, blue eyes, cheeks and skin crafted of pale grey, dead skin. Cybernetics lined his face, as the water dripped off of it in a thick rivulet, rippling against the sink. He tried to widen his eyes, but found he couldn't.
All he could do was scream.
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June 13, 2186
1548 hours.
Medical Bay, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-2, In FTL inbound for the Citadel.
The Reaper War.
Captain Marcus Lee Shepard.
His eyes shot open, eying the ceiling, the blinding light almost damaging his eyes as he lay there, quinting. He gripped the sheets tightly, and he heard voices in the background, shaking his head to get rid of the lingering thoughts in his head. What the hell was that? He continued to stare up at the ceiling, trying to recognize what he was looking at. Suddenly, the sterile white wall came into crystal clarity, and he nodded, knowing here he was. He was in the Med Bay, back on the Normandy. We didn't die on Illium. I didn't become a husk. My crew saved me. We escaped Harbinger.
Serve us.
It was like a whisper lingering at the back of his mind and he gritted his teeth at its unpermitted entry, mentally swatting it away like an annoying insect. But there was new voices joining it, but these ones weren't in his mind; they were entering his ears externally.
He sat up suddenly, and immediately regretted it as his ribcage flared up, worse than before. He felt a hand shove him back onto the bed, head hitting the pillow as he heard the voice scold him, this one feminine. He recognized it as Chakwas', and he heard chattering in the background that had to be Michel. I need to get moving...there's a war to be won...
His hearing suddenly returned to him, his ears popping as the doctor's bandying of words became crystal clear, "-telling you Michel, he's not ready to start moving. He's suffered some pretty horrific injuries."
"He's loaded with cybernetics that have been fixing his body for the past three hours," Michel retorted, "I think we can dismiss him, while limiting him to a couple days light work." Marcus was surprised and shocked at that. Three hours!? I need to get up. Right now. He tried to get back up again, but found himself pushed back down, Chakwas eying him with a cold glare.
"You sit back down, mister! You are not ready to return to duty just yet, and I don't care what Michel says!"
"He's more than capable," Michel insisted, waving a hand at his form, "He's healed sufficiently to walk. And like I said, all he would do is light work."
"You don't know him like I do, Michel," Chakwas remarked, and he swore he saw a hint of a smile on her lips before it was gone, "The stubborn fool would be immediately back on the battlefield the next day. No, no 'light work' for him. He's staying until he's completely healed."
"I think I'll speak for myself," Marcus declared, coming to sit up again, but holding up a hand to halt Chakwas' putting him down.
"You're a patient. You do not get a voice in this," Chakwas stated forcefully, crossing her arms, "You had three cracked ribs, a broken leg, a large migraine, a head fracture, two teeth missing, a bitten tongue and alot of back bruises. You're lucky we're in the 22nd Century, or you'd be a cripple at this point; a battered wreck. I was barely able to heal you as it is."
"Yes, but the patient is the captain," Marcus straightened out, wagging a finger between them, "Now, we're at bloody war. I can't afford to just lounge around when I'm perfectly fine to walk around. There's work to be done, and it's not going to be done just lying here."
"Let someone else do it for a change. Just for a while," Chakwas forlornly suggested, as if begging him to rest, "You've been going about these things like a robot, and it's not healthy. You need rest. Just rest..."
"Do you think the galaxy gets to rest? Do you think Anderson gets to sleep peacefully?" he growled, glaring at her. Seeing her silence, he nodded, "Exactly. There will be no rest until the Reapers are destroyed. Until Cerberus is dust. No rest, no mercy, no lying down. We fight or we die, Chakwas. I've been saying it for days, and you know it's true. We cannot afford to fuck around while the Reapers burn our worlds. No more. There will be no rest until I can afford it, Karin."
She sighed, "You're being too hard on yourself-"
"...not hard enough," Marcus snapped, swinging so that his legs hung off the side of the bed, "Anything less than my best is atrocious. Not good enough. Innocent people are dying out there while you suggest I 'rest.' Do they? In death maybe, but in life? No, they are constantly on the run. What does that say about me if I just lie here and let everyone else do the work? No, that's not good enough. We fight or we die. That's the plan I'm following."
"You're going to burn yourself out," she stated, "You'll-"
"They almost turned me into a husk today. I was weak, and they took advantage of that. Harbinger almost got in," he snarled, almost pushing Chakwas aside as he stood, realizing he was in his civvies as he stood, barefoot, on the cold, sterile floor, "But he will not get another chance: I will not give them another opening. It will not happen. It won't. It can't."
"You're weak due to a lack of-"
"No more Karin. None," he sternly stated, "I will not hear anymore on the topic. I've made my choice, and there is no other choice here. The Reapers have to be stopped or noone will get any 'rest.'" Serve us. Serve us. Serve us. He felt the urge to shove Chakwas aside, but he got rid of that thought, surprised at his own violent thoughts. Stop that, Shepard. What the hell is wrong with you? Cut it out. He turned to the doctor, deciding to make a hasty retreat before he did something foolish, "I'll be in the War Room if anyone needs me." And with that, he made a hasty retreat, moving through the doors and heading straight for the elevator. Chakwas and Michel could only exchange glances before sighing and returning to work.
He reached the elevator and leaned against it, his breathing quickening as a familiar whisper returned. You are ours. You are ours. Serve us. Serve us. Serve us. He gritted his teeth and gave a low growl, trying to force the voice out. But it persisted, increasing in pitch before suddenly stopping, leaving him with a throbbing headache. What...the...fuck. Maybe I should ask Chakwas for-
No, none of that soldier. No weakness. No surrender. You will soldier on, you're an N7, act like it. You will not be crippled by a simple headache.
"Are you okay, Captain?" he heard Gardner's voice from behind him, and he didn't even register the cook as he headed for the elevator, turning and entering it.
"I'm fine." He hit the button for the CIC, and he backed up until his back hit the wall, bringing his breathing back under control. He sighed, closing his eyes as he gulped slightly. What the hell is going on? What is with these voices?
A remnant of the dream, surely. Harbinger must have affected me more than I thought.
He decided to not let it affect him further.
"Moving on. Just what occurred after the Illium incident?"
- Reia'Inas pav Earth.
"You don't have to continue if you don't want to, Marcus."
- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.
"Yes he does! Prometheus needs this info if we are to-"
- Reia'Inas pav Earth.
"Enough! I will not have my husband put through anymore-"
- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.
"Its okay. Really. What happened obviously happened seventy years ago. It doesn't affect me anymore. I'm okay to continue."
- Marcus Shepard.
"Are you sure, k'sesh?"
- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.
"I'm sure, k'sesh."
- Marcus Shepard.
"Then do continue."
- Reia'Inas pav Earth.
"Next, we headed for the Citadel. But we took a detour to Tuchanka, reasons of which would quickly become known."
- Marcus Shepard.
K'sesh: Khelish word. Literal Translation: Exact translation unknown, although it is used in a similiar context to endearing, loving words such as sweetheart, love, or honey.
A/N:
Quite dramatic, mmm eh?
Next chapter, as hinted, is on Tuchanka, so, naturally...we're going to do the rachni mission. Just kidding, no, its time for Tarquin. I know I said Utukku was next (or at least hinted at it), but I realized an incosistency in the timeline, and it took them three days to get to Illium from the Citadel (June 10 to 13) and it would take three days to get back (June 13 to 16). As we know, Tarquin is heading for the bomb by June 16, and is close to reaching it. So it made more sense for that to happen first. So, yeah...turian bomb mission is up next.
Final exam my friends! Then it'll be the holidays, and I can hopefully pump out these chapters more periodically. Might even get to reuniting Shepard and Tali, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Let's see how it plays out.
Keelah Se'lai, troopers!
